Being Human blog: The Wolf-Shaped Bullet

'“I’m doing this because I love you.”

“I know.”

Lots of things happened in the third series finale of Being Human – including the death, once and for all, of Herrick – but it all paled in comparison to the last scene, in which George staked Mitchell to save him from a life of carrying out the dirty work of the Old Ones. And with him, you have to suspect, dies any chance of the cosy domesticity of series one returning.

But before we get to that, let’s mourn for a moment the passing of arguably the greatest villain in Being Human history. Yes, Herrick was as evil as they come, but don’t tell me that you didn’t enjoy seeing him back on his old form, moving from pure evil to charming and funny in a heartbeat: the disappointment that Mitchell and George refusing to fight would deny him his half-time “Nespresso”; his attempts to understand Mitchell’s psyche; “it’s clearly dress-down Friday”; the disgust at the “vein of decency” that runs through Mitchell. The fact that he was killed so suddenly seemed in some ways a waste, but it fitted in with the world-view of this programme: even the biggest, baddest villain can be caught off guard; a one-hundred year relationship between two vampires can be ended in a car overlooking the sea in Wales.

And so the third series of Being Human concluded with one of the programme’s most shocking events, the staking of John Mitchell. The wolf-shaped bullet prediction turned out to be misdirection, the action of a scared girl trying to get revenge for her untimely death who ended up seriously out of her depth (a welcome return from Lacey Turner, who surely has great things ahead of her). But, in the end, it became a self-fulfilling prophesy. The identity of the wolf was fairly obvious, but his motive couldn’t have been predicted. The final fifteen minutes of the episode had me completely on edge. One of my favourite story beats was Nina’s ability to completely nail Mitchell’s behaviour: after eighty years as a vampire, just staking himself wasn’t angsty enough for John Mitchell. I couldn’t quite believe that George was going to go through with it, so the reappearance of Wyndam was almost a relief. Well, briefly, anyway.

Yes, Lee Ingleby was over-the-top. Yes, Wyndam was a fairly stereotypical vampire. But he had about five minutes to establish himself as a credible threat to the entire world, more dastardly than Herrick could have dreamed of being, and from that point of view it worked. It also worked in creating an utterly hopeless situation for Mitchell, which was the only way George’s actions made sense. And their final moment together was a beautiful testament to the friendship that has always been at the heart of this programme, and wonderfully played for the actors.

So, farewell John Mitchell. His humour, inherent cool, "vein of decency" and greasy hair will be sorely, sorely missed, and killing off the closest thing this series has to an outright lead was an undeniably brave decision on the part of Toby Whithouse. But it also seems like the right one: a clear ending, allowing him to pay for his horrible crimes, is infinitely preferable to sending him off with Wyndam on the off-chance that Aidan Turner will be able to get enough time off from The Hobbit to film an episode in series 5. It’ll shake the programme up entirely, but an evolving, experimenting programme is infinitely preferable to a stagnant one. And, besides, there’ll always be flashbacks.

So, no more will our three core characters sit on the sofa, drinking tea made by Annie and watching The Real Hustle. That version of Being Human will certainly be missed, but, based on the brilliance of this final episode, I’m looking forward to seeing what comes in its place.

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